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Tuesday, 16 October 2012

A Furious, Semi-Coherent Rant about Subtext

This is something I’ve talked about before with reference
to the Bromance
in Teen Wolf. But that was through moderate, restrained and I’m done with
that. My temper has snapped and it’s time for a rant.

I am bloody sick over the fawning over shows because of
their pathetic subtext. Call it slashwink. Call it “queerbait.” Call it
homo-bromance. Call it what you will, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of it being used
as a complete replacement for actual GBLTQ content or characters. I’m sick of
the massive praise and joy of the latest hint of homoerotic subtext with barely
a breath of criticism of the complete and utter erasure those show actually
have.

And enough with the fucking “fanon” wish-fulfilment. Slash
fans over and over again pretending that the characters are being presented as
bisexual really so it’s INCLUSIVE honest – of course because it makes their
thrice damned ONE TRUE PAIRING canonically possible. Stop, your desperate
attempt to morph the show to fit your fantasy doesn’t make it inclusive or
real. Desperately trying to cast Dean as bisexual? Really? And there is no damn indication on the show that Stiles is bisexual (no, Word of Gay doesn't count, especially when it's "could maybe, sorta, possibly" slashbait). “How did
he get the numbers of all those drag queens?” because the writers wanted to
make a recurring homophobic joke you clueless fetishists! So they could drag up
the drag queens whenever they thought they could get a cheap freaking laugh out
of it. The same damn reason they had Stiles fake!come out to his father so he
could hit back with a gay joke. It’s not like they didn’t do it before – Scott and
Danny dancing, appropriating the hundreds of gay teens who have been evicted
from proms for daring not to be closeted – remember that? Yes, mere mention of TEH
GAY is considered funny – it’s a homophobic convention that’s been going on
since the 60s if not earlier. Yes it’s old and yes it should have died but it
keeps on going – not least of which because of slashers grabbing them and
jumping up and down with glee over a tired, homophobic, trope.

And don’t tell me that the people who are uncritically squeeing
and fawning and praising are the exception. They’re
not, they’re really not and, just like with the m/m genre,
there’s a distinct lack of criticism of this bullshit and a lot of hostility
towards those – especially gay and bi men – who presume to do so. Challenging
this subtext is not even slightly the norm.

And yes, the use of subtext instead of inclusion IS BECAUSE
OF YOU! Slash is part of the cause! Stop wringing your hands and pretending
that slash fandom bears no responsibility for this! That it’s unknown and
hidden and why would anyone ever try to direct things at you, the great big
secret?! It’s ridiculous to pretend that slash isn’t part of this and then turn
round in the same damn breath and be so damn happy that ZOMG the slashers being
TWEETED by the writers of a show and isn’t it amazing! Or how this actor
acknowledged an OTP! Or how you all mobbed a show creator on Twitter and now he’s
talking about your pairing! ZOMG!

The writers, the actors, the networks they know about
slash. This isn’t new! Or shouldn’t be to you by now! They play to it, all of
them. They write the little moments like Stiles passing out on Derek or Castiel
talking about his “profound bond” with Dean because they know you’ll lap it up.
They produce vids Tyler Hoechlin cuddling up with Dylan O’Brien on that boat or
scenes at conventions like Misha Collins pretending to kiss Sebastian Roche
because they know it’s throwing red meat to a large and loud portion of their
fanbase. You are having an effect. You are a market they are playing to – and they
are playing to you WITHOUT being inclusive because that is sufficient.

And don’t tell me this slash fandom is somehow making
progress. Supernatural has been running for 8 freaking seasons. Eight. It has
openly acknowledged slash in its own canon since season 4. Actual inclusion?
Virtually non-existent. Bit characters, usually for comic relief. And why
should they do more? They don’t need to be inclusive, and the offense risk that
brings, because they’ve got a legion of slash fans ready and eager to scream “ZOMG
BEST GAY THING EVAH!”

Why make tokens for inclusion cookies anymore? You just
have to have hot 2 guys share a lingering look and a gazillion fans will jump
up and down panting and hail you as more gay friendly than a rainbow full of
glitter covered unicorns. The writers, actors, producers et al are HEARING you,
they hear what you’re saying, they see what you’re writing. Congrats, you have
been noticed.

But what they’re hearing you say is not “inclusion of
GBLTQ people is important,” they’re hearing you say “ZOMG my hot fetish is so
hot! Mooooar subtext, rawr!” because that is what you’re saying. Even the
protests to make GBLTQ characters canon isn’t “we need some better
representation of under-represented GBLTQ characters” it’s far more “MY OTP IS
HAWT! I WANT TO SEE IT!” They’re listening to you – but what the slash
community is demanding only pretends to be GBLTQ friendly.

And this is not only damaging on the inclusion on these
shows but it’s also damaging on both criticism and expectation. I’ve seen 2
blogs criticise Teen wolf – rightly – about its crappy depiction of women (we
agree, we did too) and it’s awful depiction of race (we agree – and wrote a
piece but then Racialicious released their piece a day before, curse our
schedule!) and both PRAISED Teen
Wolf for its depiction of gay characters. That should be character, of course,
single – Danny who only shows up when straight people need something and then
for the briefest moment. But hey, he wasn’t been beaten to a pulp! PRO GAY
GUYS!!!! This is how low our expectations are – but hey, we got the slashwinks
right? I’m bloody sick of being asked about boycotting shows for their failed
inclusion by people who are loving the damn slashwink bullshit – have you seen
our watch
list? If we boycotted the erased series we wouldn’t have watched half of
them – if we don’t include the blatant tokens only a tiny fraction are left!

And don’t even dare to say “baby steps” to me because I
am done with that. It is 2012 it’s time to grow the fuck up and start striding –
or, since we’ve got so far to catch up – bloody sprinting. We have a media
culture that can manage to produce Captain Jack Harkness and openly gay school
kids on Glee (for all the many things wrong with that show), True Blood (for
all its many problems)
can fit in several gay characters, Lost Girl can have a bisexual protagonist (yes
it has problems,
but it and Torchwood remain the only programmes I’ve watched not aimed at a
GBLTQ audience that actually has us as protagonists). Don’t tell me
Supernatural just cannot cannot cannot possibly manage an actual gay character
or Teen Wolf couldn’t pull out Danny from the plot box now and then or the
Vampire Diaries couldn’t manage a gay character who isn’t putting his straight
daughter through torturous conversion therapy while she screams that she’s born
this way (yeah that was really fucked up). Screw your damn baby steps, subtext
isn’t a baby step, it’s not even standing still – it’s a great big step
backwards to a time when hints were all we can manage. It isn’t the 90s
anymore, let’s stop settling for it.

All in all, I am so bloody sick of people revelling in,
praising and supporting the subtext and completely ignoring or hand waving the
erasure and the tokenism. And I am sick of these shows that continually erase
us or token us throwing out this subtext and calling it inclusion. We deserve
better than this.